Duane Elgin

Duane Elgin "is an author, speaker, educator, consultant, and media activist. For more than three decades, he has defined the cutting edge in consciousness research, in the ecology movement, and in future studies. He pioneered the “Voluntary Simplicity” movement with his now classic first book, titled by the same name, published in the 1980s. The book provided an exploration of the practical and philosophical meaning of simplicity, as well as a comprehensive overview of the precarious ecological predicament of our planet. His current activist agenda is to transform the media, particularly television, which he sees as our greatest environmental risk factor because violent and materialistic programming has a devastating effect on human consciousness and behavior. Elgin has cofounded three nonprofit organizations concerned with media accountability; see: www.ourmediavoice.org

"In his most recent book, Promise Ahead: A Vision of Hope and Action for Humanity's Future (2000), Elgin chronicles how momentous "adversity trends" (such as climate change) are meeting equally momentous "opportunity trends" (such as the global communications revolution). He believes that within two decades, these converging forces will create a global, whole-system crisis where the human family will have the choice of either pulling together to create an evolutionary bounce, or pulling apart to precipitate an evolutionary crash.

"Elgin has worked as a senior social scientist with the think tank SRI International, where he coauthored numerous studies on the long-range future for government agencies such as the National Science Foundation. He has also worked as a senior staff member of the joint Presidential-Congressional Commission on the American Future. He has an M.B.A. from the Wharton School, an M.A. in economic history from the University of Pennsylvania, and an honorary Ph.D. for work in "ecological and spiritual transformation" from the California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA."

"Elgin served as a senior staff member of the joint Presidential/Congressional Commission on Population Growth and the American Future and as a senior social-scientist with SRI International. At SRI he co-authored several major studies on the long-range future. These included Alternative Futures for Environmental Planning (for the Environmental Protection Agency), Anticipating Future National and Global Problems (for the President's Science Advisor), and City Size and the Quality of Life (for the National Science Foundation).

"He is the primary author of The Millennium Project report Global Consciousness Change: Indicators of an Emerging Paradigm. Previously he was also the co-founder and director of Choosing Our Future, a non-partisan, non-profit organization created to "revitalize the conversation of democracy by mobilizing our tools of mass communication.""


 * Club of Budapest: Members
 * Global Council on Spirituality & Deep Ecology, World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality
 * International Advisory Board, Gaia University

His website is http://www.awakeningearth.org

selected books

 * Promise Ahead: A Vision of Hope and Action for Humanity's Future (Quill, 2001)
 * Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life that is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich (Rev. Quill, 1998)
 * Awakening Earth: Exploring the Evolution of Human Culture and Consciousness - with Joseph Campbell (William Morrow, 1993)

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Tom Atlee
 * Coleen LeDrew Elgin
 * Our Media Voice
 * Global Oneness Project